For Immediate Release
February 14, 2005

Global Message

From remarks by Secretary of State Rice in a press availability, 2/11/05

Dictatorships offer false stability. It is clear that freedom deficits in parts of the world result in malignancy - like the growth of al Qaeda.

It is better to have the admittedly fragile and difficult process of democratic development than it is to have the false stability of dictatorship.

It is very hard to see how the democratization of the Middle East is going to take place, but it is a lot harder to imagine the status quo lasting.

It is better to get about the business of trying to support democracy in the Middle East, but it is going to happen at different speeds in different places.